


The first time Finn meets Noah

by CA_Babs



Category: Glee
Genre: Firsts, M/M, Pinn Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 23:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CA_Babs/pseuds/CA_Babs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Pinn Week 2013 Day 1- Firsts:  The first time Finn meets Noah (and coincidentally also Kurt).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The first time Finn meets Noah

The first time Finn Hudson sets eyes on Noah Puckerman, he is with his mother at the grocery store. It is early in the summer before he starts Kindergarten. Finn is walking through the store, holding onto the side of the shopping cart while his mother instructs him on things he can pick up off the shelf and place in their cart. He doesn’t touch anything else and he doesn’t ask for anything because asking for something in the store is just not allowed. Plus if Finn misbehaves, his mother won’t give him a quarter for the black horse outside the store while she loads the bags into their car. 

“Noah, get back here” Finn hears a woman yell and then he notices a boy run into his aisle, a woman pushing a shopping cart with a baby inside not too far behind him. The boy is shorter and scrawnier than Finn, with bruised and scraped knees, a mop full of dark curls and skin that looks like he spends all day outside without burning to a crisp. Finn bets that other boy doesn’t freckle in the sun either and he’d be jealous of that except 5 year old Finn Hudson has never really heard the word jealous and does not understand what it means at all.

‘Noah’ has a large bag of BBQ chips in his hands and his mother is trying to make him give them up. “Not this week Noah” the woman who looks like him and must be his mother, says. Finn wonders how much trouble Noah will be in when he gets home for taking something off the shelf, running away and in general not listening to his mother- that would mean no quarter for sure and possibly a favorite toy or activity disappearing for a couple of days in the Hudson household. Finn offers Noah a sad, half smile as he rushes past and his mother continues to chase him down the aisle. 

Finn looks up at his mother as they continue shopping. “Don’t get any ideas Finn Hudson” Carole says with a slight laugh. “You’ve been very good so far today and I know you can’t wait to ride the black horse outside. Just remember how to earn your quarter for the ride.” Finn grins and soon the other little boy is forgotten as his mother asks him to pick two boxes of his favorite cereal off the shelves. 

When they are in line paying for their groceries, Finn placing the full bags back into their shopping cart, Noah and his mother end up behind them. Noah is hanging off the front of the cart and he leans his head back, almost looking at Carole Hudson upside down before losing his balance and falling. Carole Hudson has cat like reflexes and reaches out a hand to steady the boy before he hits the ground. “Noah, be careful” Mrs. Puckerman chides her son before looking up to Carole. “Sorry about that” she says. 

“It’s not a problem” Carole Hudson says with a laugh. “He’s probably what? 4 or 5 years old?”

“Noah is 5, starting Kindergarten in the fall” Mrs Puckerman says. 

Carole tilts her head towards her son, “Finn too” she replies. “I’m Carole Hudson” she says as she offers her hand. 

“Ruth Puckerman, nice to meet you Carole Hudson” she smiles as they shake hands. 

“Maybe we could set up a park play date this summer and let the boys get to know each other before school starts” Carole offers. 

“That would be wonderful” Ruth says. “Your son is so quiet and well behaved” she offers.

Carole smiles warmly, “Finn tries hard. He is a good boy.” 

Finn throws his mom a grin when he hears her praise. 

Noah rolls his eyes. The last thing he wants is to be forced to play with some goody- goody loser. Noah Puckerman casts his eyes over to the other boy and tilts his head as he considers what he sees before him. “Oh I’m so excited!” Noah says sarcastically, because even at 5 years old, Noah Puckerman has mastered the arts of sarcasm thanks to listening to the ongoing disputes between his parents and the teenagers in their apartment complex. 

“Noah!” Ruth Puckerman chides him, picking up on his sarcasm.

“Yeah that sounds fun” Finn says and offers another of his smiles to the other boy, completely missing the sarcasm. Something else Finn doesn’t understand at all is the boys’ curly hair. Only girls have curly hair Finn thinks to himself. Finn likes little girls with curly hair, but he does not like when the girls will not let him play with their curly hair. It doesn’t make sense to Finn at all. The curls look like springs and he just wants to stretch them out and make them bounce back, almost like a slinky going down the stairs. But instead the girls cry when he pulls their curls and he gets in trouble. Finn wonders if Noah will let him play with his curls. He bets Noah wouldn’t cry if Finn pulled his curls and let them spring back up. Finn thinks it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. Noah snickers- which makes Finn uncomfortable because he doesn’t understand why his new would-be friend is laughing at him. Finn purses his lips and continues to load the groceries. 

When the cashier hands Carole her change and her receipt, Carole tears off the bottom before digging into her purse and pulling out a pen to write her name and phone number on the slip of paper. “Here you go, just give a call and we’ll set something up for the boys” she says slides the paper over to Ruth. Ruth nods as she tucks the paper into her purse and starts unloading her cart. 

Carole offers a quarter to Finn, his eyes and face lighting up in a smile. “Thanks Mom” he says. But his smile quickly disappears as they approach the black horse outside the store. There is already a boy riding the horse. Finn shoots his mom a hopeful look. “We’re not on a tight schedule today Finn, we can wait” she agrees. Finn hugs his mom as she walks towards the car and he stays by the black horse, waiting his turn. 

Finn looks at the little boy currently riding the horse. He is dressed in some of the fanciest clothes Finn has ever seen, like maybe he was supposed to be at Church at Christmas or Easter Time instead of the grocery store in the summer. He has brown hair, darker than Finn’s but not black. His skin is even paler than Finn’s though and Finn just knows that little boy would turn bright pink or red in the summer sun and would probably freckle even worse than he does. The surprising part for Finn though, is that there doesn’t seem to be a single freckle in sight and the boys skin is so pale it almost glows and reminds Finn of his mom’s best dishes. Finn feels sad because it seems to him that maybe, for some reason that Finn does not know and could not begin to understand, that the little boy spends very little to no time outside at all. 

Finn looks to the woman crouching in front of the horse. She looks remarkably like the boy, so it must be his mother. She is also wearing fancier clothes, not quite as fancy as the boys’, but fancier than his own mother wears to the grocery store, the skirt of her dress pillowing out around her crouched legs. She has the same pale but glowing skin with what looks like a dusting of freckles across her nose. Her lips are pinker than normal but Finn thinks that must be lipchapstick or whatever that is called like his mother sometimes wears. The woman’s hair is the same dark brown color and bounces in waves softly around her shoulders. Her eyes are big and look as blue as the clearest sunny day of the summer. Finn thinks this woman is beautiful, like a princess or something from a one of the fairy tales the librarian is always reading at story time on Monday afternoons. He tilts his head to the side and realises, no, not like a princess, its Snow White that the woman looks like. He watches as the little boy finishes his ride, turns to get off the horse and Finn discovers the boy has the same large eyes as his mother but the color is not sky blue but rather a blue/green color like the color of the water at the beach in his favorite storybook. 

“Isn’t that nice of this little boy to wait so patiently and politely for you to finish your turn Kurt?” the woman speaks, gesturing to Finn. Her voice is soft and melodic and Finn thinks it sounds more like she is singing than talking. The little boy, ‘Kurt’, turns and looks at Finn for the first time, his gaze falling upon him a little longer than normal before Finn notices that Kurt’s cheeks flush a light pink. Kurt turns to his mother and nods his agreement before he slips his little hand into hers. “Let’s go home and make lunch for Daddy” the woman says as she leads the little boy away. Finn frowns at the word ‘Daddy’ because he doesn’t have one of his own and although he never says anything to his mother, it is the one thing he desperately wants. Kurt begins to skip along beside his mother, before he stops, turns and waves to Finn. 

Finn is nothing if not polite, so he raises his hand and waves back to the other boy. “Bye-bye” he yells and he watches the other little boys cheeks turn pink again before he turns around and continues to skip along beside his mother. If that little boy had long hair and a dress, he would totally be a mini Snow White, Finn decides. 

Finn then turns and looks at the horse. The last time, Finn sat on the horse first and then leaned down to put in the quarter and when the horse had started bucking and moving he had almost fallen off. So this time, Finn is going to put the quarter in first and then climb onto the horse. Finn digs into his pocket, pulls out the quarter, slips it into the slot and presses the start button. He is about to jump on the horse when Finn notices a dark blur and suddenly Noah is on his horse shouting “giddy-up!”

Finn sticks his bottom lip out in a pout and feels tears pricking at his eyes. “That is my quarter, my ride” he exclaims softly. 

Noah looks at the boy beside him who seems like he might burst into tears any moment now. Just like he thought, loser. Noah rolls his eyes, ‘you snooze, you lose dude!”

Ruth Puckerman appears in that instant. “Noah, how did you get a quarter to ride that horse?” Ruth looks around and sees Finn Hudson just off to the side and the look on his face gives her all the answers. She digs around in her purse until she finds another quarter and presses it into his palm. “I’m sorry Finn. Noah is not always the nicest boy.”

Finn nods as he tries not to cry. “Thank you” he manages to choke out. 

Noah tries not to let his mother’s whispered words to Finn get to him. He doesn’t want to make his mother mad, but sometimes he is just so frustrated because his Dad is barely around and his mother, while home more, does not like to do the boy things his father used to do with him. So now Noah has to do these things on his own, for himself. He watches the older boys in the neighborhood and tires to act like them. He makes fun of the dads and sons at the park playing football and catch and whatever, not because he thinks it is lame but because it is what he so desperately craves and it hurts too much to think about it. Noah considers Finn for a moment. He must have an awesome father at home, always spending time with him because this boy is almost too good to be true. Finn’s Dad must be a strict man too and that is why Finn is so polite and well mannered- Noah used to feel that way about his dad too. Maybe, being friends with Finn won’t be so bad Noah thinks. Maybe Finn’s dad would let Noah tag along and be like another, adopted son to him. Then maybe Noah’s mom won’t be so angry with him all the time. When the horse stops moving Noah hops off the horse and holds out his hand, palm out, above his head. Finn looks at him before mirroring his actions and Noah slaps his hand in a high five. “Later Finn” he calls over his shoulder, bounding off behind his mother. Finn turns and looks at the boy as he moves away, his face kind screwed up as he considers his reply. “Later Noah” Finn finally settles on. 

Finn waits until Noah and his mother are halfway across the parking lot before he puts his quarter in the horse and climbs aboard for his ride. Carole Hudson appears at his side then, looking confused. “Your ride isn’t over yet Finn?” she askes. 

Finn looks at his mother and then glances over to where he could see Mrs Puckerman scolding Noah by their car. Finn just shrugs and looks up at his mom, “I let Noah go first” he says. 

Carole smiles and put an arm around her son’s shoulders. “That’s my boy” she says.

**Author's Note:**

> *It was going to be Rachel first, not Kurt, but then I couldn't seem to imagine little Rachel Berry on the black horse outside the grocery store, but I could imagine Kurt on it. So sorry for that!


End file.
